They are so consumed with their work and with each other that they don’t notice the droplets at first.

Mary notices first, when a large raindrop falls on her nose, and a sensation of cold passes through her. She has heard of places with warm rain, as warm as bath water, but Yorkshire is not one of those places. Only now does she realize that it is raining fairly hard, and off in the distance, thunder rumbles.

“We should get to a shelter,” she says, glancing backward at Matthew, who is jotting down notes about a field and doesn’t notice how wet his paper is.

He reluctantly puts his notes down and looks up at the sky, getting a face full of water as he does so. Mary has to try hard to not giggle at him, but her attempts are not extremely successful. She is lucky that she has a good natured husband, she supposes, and she very gladly takes his arm. “I don’t suppose we could make it back to Downton, could we?”

Matthew refuses to answer, instead looking around to seek out shelter. “There are a couple of empty cottages maybe a quarter mile from here. If we hurry, we’ll probably be able to get there before the worst of the storm.”

“Lead the way,” Mary says. He says nothing in reply but keeps her close as they traverse muddy paths in search of shelter. It isn’t lost on her that any time the thunder rolls, he stops suddenly.

The cottages are small, abandoned stone buildings, built close together. When they see the row of cottages, their pace quickens, and so does the pace of the rain.

It is a relief when Matthew pushes open the wooden door, the cottage thankfully unlocked, and they both stumble inside. The dry atmosphere is soothing, but it is dark. Mary is about to throw open the windows, but she sees a fire starting in the fireplace.

“How did you do that?” she asks, looking on in amazement.

Matthew shrugs and sits on the couch, groaning as he does so. “I know one thing we’re replacing if we ever renovate these cottages. But I had a lighter on me. Never know when you might need one.”

“Why did you have a lighter?”

“Same reason I have a flask of whiskey. They’re both good things to always have on you. Especially in the trenches, but even so now. Would you like some to drink? I’m not an advocate of excessive drink, but it does warm you up.” Matthew reaches into his pocket to pull out a dented metal flask. He takes a swig and sighs as he leans back again and swallows. He hands it to his wife and she takes it in her hands, turning it over.

She takes a dainty sip and hands it back to him. “What happened to my innocent solicitor from Manchester?”

“As I recall, you weren’t keen to marry that innocent solicitor from Manchester,” Matthew replies, a hint of hurt in his voice. He blows out a breath and takes another sip.

She shakes her head and looks away. “I was young and stupid and you were too. We both were, and this is not the place to dwell on past hurts.”

Matthew is about to reply, but a flash of lightning makes light flood the room, and seconds later, thunder rolls. Mary’s eyes focus immediately on Matthew, whose jaw is set, his eyes staring straight ahead, his hands shaking. Before she can think, she is sitting on the couch next to him, his hand in hers.

“Are you alright?” she asks quietly, her voice soothing.

He nods. His own voice is quiet, as if the words are hard to come by. “It sounds like guns.”

There is nothing more that needs to be said. Mary understands, and she wishes she could rid him of the memories, but there is little she can do. Except for one thing.

She presses her lips to his and takes his face in her hands. “Care for some distraction?”

He is still somewhat shaken, but this doesn’t prevent his from pulling her closer and whispering, “You could distract me more…”

Putting what we saw in 4 and 5 aside for a moment, how many years would it realistically take Mary to be able to move on from the type of relationship she had with Matthew? Christmas, 1924 would have Matthew dead a little over 3 years. Is that really such a long time that she would be itching for another man? She loved him for at least 10 years and pined for him for 8. I do not see the need to rush into another marriage.

I don’t get some of the peanut gallery commentary that it’s somehow disrespectful or insensitive of Mary not to be bothered by Henry Talbot’s passion for cars. Was making him a motor enthusiast = Julian
Fellowes yanking us a little? Probably. Would I have understood had she
reacted with some discomfort? Sure. But I also don’t get why she must,
absolutely should have, in Matthew’s memory. He died in a freak road
accident, he didn’t die racing anybody. We saw it happen, she didn’t.
(And it’s highly unlikely she would have been to the site of the
accident or gone to identify his body, she was in no condition for one
thing and Robert and Carson would have physically shackled her had she
tried.) Why should she carry scars about cars or driving? She’s
chauffeured around, and that’s okay because she’s not the one driving,
but a guy exhibits a passion for cars, possibly racing, and that’s
supposed to trigger some unresolved trauma? She watched her beloved
sister die in childbirth, yet she was very matter-of-fact about her own
pregnancy and we know how she’s handled George’s birth. Is that supposed
to make her unfeeling or cold-hearted? She does carry scars, she’ll
never forget that they survived the war only to lose him in a freak
accident the day their son was born. Isn’t that enough? Why should she
associate that with… cars?

I watched the Downton Abbey finale last night because I was only paying attention to 17% of it when I saw it on the Internet backstreets (hiding on the baaackstreets!), but this time I (mostly) paid attention and it somehow unleashed a whole stream of pent-up bile about this show that I thought died around the time the burn-victim heir showed up and t —- zzzzz.

This is tl,dr; to sum up, Fellowes is a sadistic son-of-a-bitch and I am 187% positive that next season will feature a Very Special Episode where Atticus and Rose return from New York because Atticus just got a Very Exciting New Job Opportunity! In MUNICH!